Here we
see a Clock To Access Time of 5.5ns. and support for
CAS Latency of 2 performance up to 143MHz.
Remember, these are chip level numbers. When
there are several of these parts on a module, other
timing issues come into play like chip to chip
timing, so specifications at the module level may be
different.

Now
let's look at Corsair's module with Micron on
board...

Similar
to the Mosel chips, these are also 7ns. 8MX8 SDRAM
rated at 7ns. Here are their timing tables
courtesy of Micron
Semiconductor.

Our
module has the "-7E" parts on it, as you
can see in the picture above. Here we see
slightly less aggressive timings with a CAS2
Allowable Operating Frequency of 133MHz. Now,
with this in mind, "specsmanship" between
Semiconductor Manufacturers is a delicate
game. Micron may just be a little more
conservative in the way they characterize their
parts. Still, looking at the specs, it seems
as though the Mosel devices can handle a CAS Latency
setting of 2 up to 143MHz. and the Micron only up to
133MHz.

Benchmarks
/ Comparison Between CAS2 and CAS3
Settings

So,
what's the big deal?

Here is a quick look
at what sort of performance gain CAS2 versus CAS3
settings can produce.

The
first thing to note is that when all things are
equal, bus speed and CAS Latency settings that is,
both modules perform identically. The next
thing to note in the CAS3 scores (taken only on the
Corsair sticks) is there is a fair amount of
bandwidth lost. Even at a 160MHz. FSB, the
CAS3 timings can't keep up with CAS2.

Now, how
does this affect real world performance?
That's what we have in store next...